1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to management of access control lists (ACLs) used to regulate access to shared resources. More particularly, the present invention relates to automated control of ACLs based on analysis of social networks to regulate access.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In large institutions such as corporations, research centers, and educational facilities, networked computer systems are commonplace. By utilizing a network architecture, various resources within the institution may be shared by its users. For example, all the users having workstations located at the northwest end of a floor in a building could be configured to share a common printer. Or, all the users on a design team may be granted access to open/read a spreadsheet file, containing all the names and telephone numbers of the team members, stored on the workstation of a particular user or system.
Typically, access to files and other resources are managed with access control lists (ACLs), which contain information such as an identity (e.g., user name, identification number, etc.) of the user or entity, and an access right or level (e.g., no access, read-only access, read/write access, etc.), for all the users/entities that have access to a particular resource. These ACLs are usually manually configured by a user or a system administrator, and stored on an authentication server. That is, the identity and access right pairs are manually entered to create the ACLs for each shared resource in a network. However, the ACLs may be stored as part of the resource itself, or separately. In a file system, for example, the ACLs are typically stored as part of the file resource itself. In a case where the resource is a printer, for example, the ACLs are stored usually on a server running the Print Scheduler.
Manual entry of ACLs is a long and cumbersome process, which increases the maintenance costs of the entire system, particularly when new groups are formed or disbanded over short periods of time. Additionally, when a new user transitions into a group, or transitions from one group to another, a number of ACLs may be affected. Time is required for a user or a system administrator to update each affected ACL so that the new user has the appropriate access to the shared resources utilized by the group (or even to restrict access to shared resources of a former group). Access control lists can also become very large and unwieldy, which makes it difficult to remember which users are on the ACLs, or to whom the access levels have been assigned. Therefore, automated, fast, accurate, and cost-effective management of ACLs for shared resources in a network infrastructure is desirable.